Part 37

Similar expressions of professional prejudice--not to say stupidity--might be cited by the dozen; but the reader may prefer, in conclusion, to hear the voices of the noblest, most enlightened of his countrymen, which amply indemnify the master for the injustice done him by the "Leckmessern" of his time. _Goethe_ expressed his reverence for Gluck in the beautiful verses which accompanied the copy of "Iphigénie in Tauris" which he sent the singer Milder:

"Dies unschuldvolle, fromme Spiel Das edlen Beifall sich errungen, Erreichte doch ein höheres Ziel Von _Gluck_ betont, von _dir_ gesungen."

(This noble drama, from corruption free Won the unfeigned applause of thoughtful men, But reached a still more lofty purpose, when To music set by Gluck, and sung by thee!)

Just as sincerely did Wieland, the great master of poetry, pay homage to music and its great exponent. "I have moments," he wrote on July 13th, 1776, "in which I long inexpressibly for the ability to produce a lyric work worthy to receive life and immortality through Gluck. And oh! that we might once be fortunate enough to see and hear him in our midst! That I might see the man face to face and in his presence give some slight expression to the emotions kindled by the little I have heard (and very poorly rendered) of his splendid works!" The year before, Wieland had spoken still more specifically in regard to the Gluck reform; in 1775, he wrote in the "German Mercury": "At last we have lived to see the epoch in which the mighty genius of a Gluck has undertaken the great work of a musical reform. The success of his 'Orpheus' and 'Iphigénie' would lead us to hope everything, if, in those capitals of Europe where the Fine Arts have their chief centre, innumerable obstacles did not oppose his undertaking. To restore their original dignity to those arts which the populace have been accustomed to regard as the tools of sensual enjoyment, and to seat Nature firmly on a throne which has been long usurped by the arbitrary power of fashion, luxury and voluptuousness, is a great and daring venture. Gluck has shown us what might be done by music, if in our day there were an Athens anywhere in Europe, and if, in this Athens should appear a Pericles who should do for the opera what he did for the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides."

Words of this kind were not spoken in vain; their power, together with Gluck's music, could not but succeed in breaking down the opposition of even the strictest adherents to the old régime, and before the beginning of another century all the master's enemies had left the field. From that time to the present day, there has been no serious-minded lover of music who has not cheerfully agreed with the motto to be found upon the bust of Gluck in the Grand Opera in Paris:

"Il préféra les Muses aux Sirènes." (He preferred the Muses to the Sirens.)

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 4: According to Fürstenau ("History of Music and the Theatre at the Court of Dresden," II., 249), it is not improbable that Gluck conducted the opera at Hamburg from Nov. 15-27, 1747.]

[Footnote 5: At the twentieth double representation Gluck's work brought 3115 livres, that of Piccini, but 1483 livres. It goes without saying that the number of people in the audience can never be a criterion for the intrinsic value of a work of art, unless the author has made no concession to the taste of the masses. But as Gluck, since his "Orpheus," had absolutely refused to do this, the applause of the general public has all the more weight.]

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+---------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber notes: | | | | Please note: text with _surrounding_ it are italics | | P. 3. 'Van Quickleberg' changed to 'Van Quickelberg'. | | P. 21. 'rythmically' changed to 'rhythmically'. | | P. 28. 'of the the work', taken out one 'the'. | | P. 35. 'having disapeared', changed 'disapeared' to disappeared'. | | P. 39. 'He died Oct. 24, 1825', the year is '1725', changed. | | P. 47. 'is probab y' changed to 'is probably'. | | P. 154. 'Neapolitan musican', changed 'musican' to 'musician'. | | P. 158. 'best musican', changed 'musican' to 'musician'. | | P. 159. 'Sonzogno competion', changed 'competion' to 'competition'. | | P. 164. 'ecclesiastial music', changed to 'ecclesiastical music'. | | P. 184. 'extented organ', changed 'extented' to 'extended'. | | P. 220. 'musicial activity', changed 'musicial' to 'musical'. | | P. 223. Illustration, 'CHRISTOPH WILIBALD GLUCK' should be | | 'CHRISTOPH WILLIBALD GLUCK', changed. | | P. 234. 'is dangerrously ill', changed 'dangerrously' to | | dangerously'. | | Corrected various punctuation. | +---------------------------------------------------------------------+